Wednesday, 7 June 2006

+++Below is from the Cambrian news+++

Fifty new hotel jobs but design under fire

OVER 50 jobs will be created in Aberystwyth after a pub and hotel criticised as looking “like Crossroads motel” got the go-ahead.

The new Marston’s 26-bed development which will be built at Parc y Llyn between the Welsh Government offices and the Mudiad Ysgol Meithrin is expected to be open by 2013.

After extensive negotiations over the design with planning officers going back before Christmas, the plan finally went before the council’s planning committee last week where it was hotly debated.
Aberystwyth Cllr Alun Williams dismissed the design at a county council planning committee meeting as looking like “Crossroads motel” from the famous TV soap series, or “something you’d find on the outskirts of Miami”.

And fellow Aberystwyth Cllr Mark Strong questioned the economic benefit to Ceredigion of building a pub and hotel on an “important area of land” at the entrance to Aberystwyth. But Cllr Paul Hinge warned that “putting too many blocks in the way” at such a late stage would cause the developer to pull out.

Tina Moorhouse from Marston’s said: “We are delighted that planning permission has been granted in Aberystwyth. Over 50 full and part-time jobs will be created at the pub as a result.”